Cancer is a disease that seriously jeopardizes the health of human beings. Around the globe, about 6 millions people die of cancer every year, with another 10 millions seriously affected by the disease. According to the estimate of the World Health Organization, in the 21st century, cancer will become the “number one killer” of mankind.
In the past several decades, many ways of treating cancer became available, mainly including surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonotherapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy, among which surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy have become the major means. Chemotherapy refers to treating cancer with chemical medication. It is the most rapidly expanding field in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. A great number of new medicines aiming at different targets are ready for clinical application, and developments in research in mechanism of drug action and pharmacokinetics have made the clinical administration routes and means more fitting for killing tumor cells while protecting the normal tissues.
The search for natural-derived molecule for inhibiting cancer cells has led to the discovery of molecules such as Taxol or Vinblastine. Despite the utility of taxus and vinca alkaloids in the clinic, there are serious limitations to these therapies.
One major drawback when treating cancer is to achieve selectivity against this type of cancer cells.
There remains a need to discover and isolate new potent compounds having selective activity against certain types of cancer cells, thereby providing highly selective anti-cancer molecules.
Under such a background, a novel cancer cell inhibiting extract is highly desirable.